…but it does.
Since reading the book In Praise of Slowness, I’ve been more or less religious about driving the speed limit. Call it a spiritual discipline. Every time the speedometer creeps up, it reminds me to breathe deeply and center and slow down. Truth be told, I’m not a great driver. I’ve hit three cars over the years, usually at stoplights. All minor, though expensive. But I’ve never been pulled over for speeding. Driving the speed limit is one safe and sane thing I can do.
The speed limit on the county parkway is 50. I rarely top 55 on it, although I did today while passing several cars’ worth of slow traffic. Naturally, I got tailgated. I even bumped my brake lights in protest, but Huffy McLeadfoot would not be deterred, continuing to bear down on me. Clearly she is The Most Important Person in the Universe.
Having passed the slower traffic, I dutifully changed lanes, and she zoomed past me. I don’t know why she was driving so fast. Perhaps she wanted to pass as many people as possible so as to show off her yellow Support the Troops bumper sticker. Really, it’s a public service on her part.
Unfortunately, the police officer at the top of the hill didn’t see it that way.
Oh, I am chortling about it even now.
14 Responses to “this really shouldn’t make my day…”
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Asides
» There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places. -Wendell Berry
» “The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope.” -Barbara Kingsolver
» It’s National Procrastination Week (who comes up with these things?), and in honor of people like me who like to celebrate NPW all year long, here’s a good article.
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Very rarely do we get to see *What goes around comes around* in action. Maybe it was your tiny reward for doing the right thing!
Let’s all sing a chorus of “Schadenfreude” from the musical Avenue Q. Tee hee.
Perhaps karma *is* a boomerang…
Maybe 15 years ago, I was on my way to work in an old Valiant at 4AM on a dark, desolate stretch of California highway. For a long time, I was the only car on the road.
I don’t know the make of the car behind the headlights that drew up close and tailgated me going 65 for several miles, but the blue and red light bar that suddenly illuminated behind it was most certainly bolted to a heavy-suspension Crown Vic.
Keith,
I had a similar situation in college…car full of Baptist Student Union Theater Group (my checkered past) driving back from a performance late at night in my tank of a V-8 sedan, going about 75-80, we noticed a car following us for quite some time about a tenth of a mile back…so dark we couldn’t make it out…We drove that way for about 10 minutes, when just as we passed a sign that noted we were changing counties, the lights went on…State Trooper. Turned out we had passed the guy in the dark a ways back…he saw that we were college students, and he followed us into the next county because the ticket was half as much in the county where he stopped us than in the county where we passed him. It seemed odd to thank him for the favor of a cheaper ticket…but I did anyway.
I guess that’s a bittersweet ending, of sorts…
I just remember the sense of glee as my tailgater got picked off by the Highway Patrol…
Ooh….I love it when that happens.
NotShyChiRev…ROFL!
It does seem like inconsiderate driving is on the upswing. When I worked in Boston, I thought those good people were the worst, but the folks here in Your Nation’s Capitol seem to have topped Beantowners.
Yet another opportunity for Lamaze cleansing breaths.
The worst driving I saw on my trip was in Northern Virginia. It’s good to be safely home in Maine!
What’s even better is that this happened on a hill where there’s very often a speed trap. It’s a perfect setup- the police use a laser gun to clock cars coming over a rise or down a hill 1/4 a mile away, and just wave them over for a ticket without getting in their cars.
The woman who got pulled over is obviously not from the neighborhood, or she would have known.
Observations from cities I’ve driven frequently in:
Bostonians: ultra-aggressive in a traffic jam. You have to use your fenders to elbow your way into a merge.
Houston: People drive insanely fast no matter the weather… zero traffic enforcement
Atlanta: Most drivers are OK, but there’s a high percentage of drivers who are either incompetant, extremely distracted or suicidally aggressive. Usually driving an SUV
N. VA & DC: Pretty decent, but the type-A lane changers need to relax
-R
Mr. Rm,
I would second your opinion of Houston and Atlanta drviers, adding only that I think part of the problem in Atlanta is that so many folks from rural areas of Georgia and the MidAtlantic (who are not comfortable or familiar with the aggressive ways of urban drivers) pass through there, raising the incompetance quotient.
As for Chicago, rules are for the other guy, and a Y chromosome apparently inspires driving that is more aggressive than any I have seen outside of Paris.
We hate Chicago drivers around here so much that we have a *special* nickname for them.
Present company excepted, I’m sure…
Oh, and those who are *related* to present company…
Revmom,
no disagreement from me…people here drive like total lunatics….And…
Can someone explain to me (please!) why teenage boys like to burn rubber at stop signs? I was one once…I didn’t do that. It was stupid…The tires get used up faster, it burns up gas, and well, it’s just uncouth. What’s the attraction? Anyone? Anyone?
I love to drive rental cars in Houston, Mr. RM. I share a last name with a NASCAR driver and feel like I am doing my part to uphold the family honor! (I wouldn’t take my own dumpy little truck within miles of those freeways!)